Kiwis Rate Ryman The Best For Third Year Running

Ryman Healthcare has been voted the top operator in the retirement village sector in the Aged Advisor People’s Choice Awards for 2020.

AgedAdvisor (www.agedadvisor.co.nz) provides a reviews and listings service similar to TripAdvisor, and has attracted almost 6,000 independent reviews since it was set up five years ago.

It is the third year in a row that Ryman Healthcare has been named Best Group Provider (nationwide) in the awards, and Ryman’s Margaret Stoddart Retirement Village in Christchurch was named Best Small Retirement or Lifestyle Village in the South Island for 2020.

Ryman’s Diana Isaac, Ernest Rutherford and Charles Upham villages were also finalists in the best medium/large category in the South Island.

And Kiri Te Kanawa, Bert Sutcliffe and Linda Jones villages were finalists in the best medium/large category in the North Island.

In total Ryman accounted for eight of the 36 awards and finalist spots.

Chief Executive Gordon MacLeod said the award success was down to the commitment of the Ryman team of 6,000.

“The significant thing about these awards is that they are the result of honest opinions from people who have taken the time to review us based on their personal experience,’’ Gordon says.

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“It is the third year in a row that we have taken the top prize and that indicates that we are consistently doing the right thing – and that is entirely down to the hard work and high standards of our teams.’’

Overall, Ryman villages have a 92% positive rating from more than 880 reviewers.

Aged Advisor’s ratings are based on almost 6,000 in-depth reviews with ratings on seven key categories ranging from the care of staff through to entertainment and food.

COVID-19 lockdowns delayed collection of reviews by three months this year.

Aged Advisor’s Founder, Nigel Matthews said safety of residents was paramount.

“Retirement village and care staff had the huge task of protecting some of our most vulnerable - and we were happy to wait until we were back at level one again before completing the voting.”

“The result was that reviews included a lot of feedback about staff and management going above and beyond during this difficult time. There were many very appreciative residents.”

AgedAdvisor uses an algorithm to judge the awards developed in conjunction with the University of Canterbury Statistics Department.

The Nationwide Group Provider Award is only given out where a provider of multiple facilities has the highest overall score average over at least half of its facilities in either independent living or care. Ryman Healthcare villages currently score in the top 10th percentile (nationwide) for over one third of its villages and over three quarters of its villages in the top 25th percentile.”

Nigel Matthews said the data collected over the past five years showed there was a strong correlation between having knowledgeable/caring staff, and responsive management, and achieving consistently high review scores.

In addition to the AgedAdvisor recognition, Ryman Healthcare has also been named the Readers’ Digest Most Trusted Brand in the aged care and retirement sector in New Zealand six times.

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